After their shocking first-round playoff exit, the Milwaukee Bucks parted ways with head coach Mike Budenholzer. Budenholzer led the Bucks to 58 wins and the Eastern Conference’s first seed. However, the team struggled against the Miami Heat, losing in five games. The Bucks became just the sixth one-seed to lose in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In five years as the Bucks’ head coach, Budenholzer went 271-120 in the regular season and won the NBA Championship in 2021.
The Bucks joined the Suns and Sixers as contenders looking for a new coach. All three teams had deep and wide-ranging candidate pools. Notably, the Bucks became the first team to be publicly linked to a college candidate. Houston Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson met with the Bucks last week. However, the team now reportedly has settled on a head coach.
Bucks Eye Raptors Assistant
According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Milwaukee Bucks’ next head coach will be Adrian Griffin. Griffin went undrafted out of Seton Hall in 1996 but found his way to the NBA in 1999 after three years split across the USBL and CBA. The small forward and shooting guard spent just under a decade in the NBA with the Celtics, Mavericks, Rockets, Bulls, and Supersonics.
After retiring in 2008, Griffin joined the coaching staff of the Bucks before moving to the Bulls in 2010. He spent five years in Chicago before spending a season in Orlando and two in OKC. However, he has been with Toronto since 2018, helping Nick Nurse win an NBA title in 2019. Milwaukee will be his first official head coaching position. He is set to take over a team that has the talent to win another NBA title, but has consistently fallen short in recent years. What do you think about the hire? Let us know in the comments.
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